8 THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 12–25 JAN 2018
“Actually, throughout my life,
my two greatest assets have been
mental stability and being, like,
really smart.”
Former reality-TV star Donald Trump.
– Twitter
“Penis laser-whitening is not
necessary, wastes money and may
give more negative effects than
positive ones.”
Dr Thongchai Keeratihuttayakorn of
Thailand’s Public Health Ministry on
the country’s latest beauty trend – penis
whitening, presumably done to make
one’s self look more like Michelangelo’s
statue of David.
– BBC (UK)
“I was asked to do a romantic
comedy recently and I thought
they’d lost their minds. Cats have
those insane half hours every
evening. I think it must have been
that for the production company.
I don’t know why anyone
would ever offer me a romantic
comedy. I find American
Psycho very funny.”
Actor Christian Bale (Empire of the
Sun, The Dark Knight) on being asked
to do a rom-com. Bale went famously
psycho himself on the set of Terminator
Salvation in 2009, which you can, of
course, listen to on YouTube.
– The Guardian (UK)
“I lie to avoid hurting people, but
I’m not very good at it. A friend
once showed me his newborn
baby. It was a bit on the ugly side,
as newborn babies can be, but
I couldn’t make myself lie and
say that it looked cute or sweet,
which of course would have been
the appropriate reaction. Instead
I went silent. The next time I
met them, the baby looked a bit
better, so I happily said ‘It has
improved.’”
Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard
(My Struggle, Books 1–6) on not being
very good at lying about his friend’s
little monkey.
– Vanity Fair (US)
“I’m very surprised it was found
this quickly; we expected it to take
longer. It’s like finding dead cats
on the road. You don’t expect to
find two so close to one another.”
Chris Caldwell, a professor of
mathematics at the University of
Tennessee, with a weird thing about
“I don’t think that Donald Trump
is capable of holding a thought
for more than three seconds,
so how can we possibly imagine
that he actually had some sort of
sustained relationship that had an
articulated strategy behind it?”
Russian journalist and author Masha
Gessen on why she thinks it is unlikely
evidence will be found of collusion
between the US President and the
Russian government.
– The New York Times (US)
HEARSAY
WRITER RICHARD CASTLES » CARTOONIST ANDREW WELDON
Woman: “I had an
epiphany eating my
breakfast this morning.”
Man: “Do you always have...
Breakfast Epiphanies?”
Woman: [Sigh]
A snippet overheard at a
restaurant by Cash of Sandy
Bay, Tasmania.
EAR2GROUND
PHOTOBYGETTY
WE WANT TO ENCOURAGE ALL WOMEN
– FROM THOSE WHO LIVE IN THE
SHADOWS TO THOSE WHO LIVE IN
THE SPOTLIGHT, FROM ALL WALKS OF
LIFE, AND ACROSS GENERATIONS – TO
CONTINUE TO STEP FORWARD AND
KNOW THAT THEY WILL BE SUPPORTED
WHEN THEY DO.
Tarana Burke (far left), the activist who started the #MeToo
movement back in 2006, on the #TimesUp campaign that saw
movie stars wearing all black to the Golden Globe Awards in
solidarity with survivors of sexual assault. Many celebrities took
activists as their guests to the awards; Michelle Williams, who
was nominated for best actress for her role in All the Money in
the World, took Burke as her guest.
– Facebook